American Jobs Act 2011 -- full text FACT SHEET with dollars

[vets74]

White House press statement as a FACT SHEET.

This was the official release for President Obama's televised address. September 9, 2011.

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY OF THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

AMERICAN JOBS ACT OVERVIEW

The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created
overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been
under attack for decades. That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just
recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on
balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street. We
can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by
investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that to
restore an American economy that’s built to last we cannot afford to outsource American jobs
and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.

To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly all of which is made up of
ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should
pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is
simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans.

And it would do so without adding a dime to the deficit.

1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow

New Tax Cuts to Businesses to Support Hiring and Investment: The President is proposing
three tax cuts to provide immediate incentives to hire and invest:
o Cutting the Payroll Tax in Half for the First $5 Million in Wages: This provision
would cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1% for employers on the first $5 million in
wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of
firms with wages below this level.

o Temporarily Eliminating Employer Payroll Taxes on Wages for New Workers or
Raises for Existing Workers: The President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2%
payroll tax firms pay for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior
year, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or both. This is the kind of job
creation measure that CBO has called the most effective of all tax cuts in supporting
employment.
o Extending 100% Expensing into 2012: The President is proposing to extend 100
percent expensing, the largest temporary investment incentive in history, allowing all
firms – large and small – to take an immediate deduction on investments in new
plants and equipment.

Helping Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Access Capital and Grow: The President’s plan
includes administrative, regulatory and legislative measures – including those developed and
recommended by the President’s Jobs Council – to help small firms start and expand. This
includes changing the way the government does business with small firms. The
Administration will soon announce a plan to accelerate government payments to small
contractors to help put money in their hands faster. The President is also charging his CIO and
CTO to, within 90 days, stand up a one-stop, online portal for small businesses to easily
access government services. As part of the President’s Startup America initiative, the
Administration will work with the SEC to conduct a comprehensive review of securities
regulations from the perspective of these small companies to reduce the regulatory burdens on
small business capital formation in ways that are consistent with investor protection, including
expanding “crowdfunding” opportunities and increasing mini-offerings. Finally, the
President’s plan calls for Congress to pass comprehensive patent reform, increase guarantees
for bonds to help small businesses compete for infrastructure projects and remove
burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators.

2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America

Tax Credits and Career Readiness Efforts to Support Veterans’ Hiring: The President is
proposing a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 for hiring unemployed veterans
who have been looking for a job for more than six months, and a Wounded Warriors Tax
Credit of up to $9,600 for hiring unemployed workers with service-connected disabilities
who have been looking for a job for more than six months, while creating a new task force to
maximize career readiness of servicemembers.

Preventing Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters: The President is proposing to invest
$35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of
thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states
and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, requiring that funds be drawn down quickly.
Under the President’s proposal, $30 billion be directed towards educators and $5 billion
would support the hiring and retention of public safety and first responder personnel.

Modernizing Over 35,000 Schools – From Science Labs and Internet-Ready Classrooms to
Renovated Facilities: The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school
infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create
jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. This
includes a priority for rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education
funded schools. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects,
greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal, and
modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology in
our schools. The President is also proposing a $5 billion investment in modernizing
community colleges (including tribal colleges), bolstering their infrastructure in this time of
need while ensuring their ability to serve future generations of students and communities.

Making an Immediate Investment in Our Roads, Rails and Airports: The President’s plan
includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping
to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society
of Civil Engineers and putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the
job. The President’s plan includes investments to improve our airports, support NextGen Air
Traffic Modernization efforts, and resources for the TIGER and TIFIA programs, which
target competitive dollars to innovative multi-modal infrastructure programs. It will also take
special steps to enhance infrastructure-related job training opportunities for individuals from
underrepresented groups and ensure that small businesses can compete for infrastructure
contracts. The President will work administratively to speed infrastructure investment
through a recently issued Presidential Memorandum developed with his Jobs Council
directing departments and agencies to identify high impact, job-creating infrastructure
projects that can be expedited in a transparent manner through outstanding review and
permitting processes. The call for greater infrastructure investment has been joined by
leaders from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President
Thomas Donohue.

Establishing a National Infrastructure Bank: The President is calling for Congress to pass a
National Infrastructure Bank capitalized with $10 billion, in order to leverage private and
public capital and to invest in a broad range of infrastructure projects of national and regional
significance, without earmarks or traditional political influence. The Bank would be based on
the model Senators Kerry and Hutchison have championed while building on legislation by
Senators Rockefeller and Lautenberg and the work of long-time infrastructure bank
champions like Rosa DeLauro and the input of the President’s Jobs Council.

Project Rebuild: Putting People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and
Communities. The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put
construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of
vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Building on proven approaches to stabilizing
neighborhoods with high concentrations of foreclosures, Project Rebuild will bring in
expertise and capital from the private sector, focus on commercial and residential property
improvements, and expand innovative property solutions like land banks. This approach will
not only create construction jobs but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing
prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Expanding Access to High-Speed Wireless in a Fiscally Responsible Way: The President is
calling for a deficit reducing plan to deploy high-speed wireless services to at least 98
percent of Americans, including those in more remote rural communities, while freeing up
spectrum through incentive auctions, spurring innovation, and creating a nationwide,
interoperable wireless network for public safety.

3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.

Reform Our Unemployment Insurance System to Provide Greater Flexibility, While Ensuring
6 Million People Do Not Lose Benefits: Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the
most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the
unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years help those without jobs transition to the
workplace. Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend
unemployment insurance, preventing 6 million people looking for work from losing their
benefits and extending what the independent Congressional Budget Office has determined is
the highest “bang for the buck” option to increase economic activity.
o Reemployment Assistance: States will be required to design more rigorous
reemployment services for the long-term unemployed and to conduct assessments to
review the longest-term claimants of UI to assess their eligibility and help them
develop a work-search plan. These reforms are proven to speed up UI beneficiaries’
return to work.

o Work-sharing: The President will expand “work-sharing” to encourage arrangements
using UI that keep employees on the job at reduced hours, rather than laying them off.
o State Flexibility for Bold Reforms to Put the Long-Term Unemployed Back To
Work: The President is proposing to provide additional funds to allow states to
introduce new programs aimed at long-term unemployed workers, including:

“Bridge to Work” Programs: States will be able to put in place reforms that
build off what works in programs like Georgia Works or Opportunity North
Carolina, while instituting important fixes and reforms that ensure minimum
wage and fair labor protections are being enforced. These approaches permits
long-term unemployed workers to continue receiving UI while they take
temporary, voluntary work or pursue work-based training. The President’s
plan requires compliance with applicable minimum wage and other worker
rights laws.

Wage Insurance: States will be able to use UI to encourage older, long-term
unemployed Americans to return to work in new industries or occupations.

Startup Assistance: States will have flexibility to help long-term unemployed
workers create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses.

Other Reemployment Reforms: States will be able to seek waivers from the
Secretary of Labor to implement other innovative reforms to connect the longterm
unemployed to work opportunities.

Tax Credits for Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed: The President is proposing a tax credit
of up to $4,000 for hiring workers who have been looking for a job for over six months.

Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults: The President is proposing a new Pathways
Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with
opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. The Initiative will
do three things: i) support summer and year-round jobs for youth, building off of successful
programs that supported over 370,000 such jobs in 2009 and 2010; ii) support subsidized
employment opportunities for low-income individuals who are unemployed, building off the
successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported
260,000 jobs in 2009 and 2010; and iii) support promising and innovative local work-based
job and training initiatives to place low-income adults and youths in jobs quickly.

Prohibiting Employers from Discriminating Against Unemployed Workers: The President’s
plan calls for legislation that would make it unlawful to refuse to hire applicants solely
because they are unemployed or to include in a job posting a provision that unemployed
persons will not be considered.

4. More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family

Cutting Payroll Taxes in Half for 160 Million Workers Next Year. The President’s plan
will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in
half next year. This provision will provide a tax cut of $1,500 to the typical family
earning $50,000 a year. As with the payroll tax cut passed in December 2010, the
American Jobs Act will specify that Social Security will still receive every dollar it would
have gotten otherwise, through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security
Trust Fund.

Helping More Americans Refinance Mortgages at Today’s Historically Low Interest
Rates:: The President has instructed his economic team to work with Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, their regulator the FHFA, major lenders and industry leaders to remove the
barriers that exist in the current refinancing program (HARP) to help more borrowers
benefit from today’s historically low interest rates. This has the potential to not only help
these borrowers, but their communities and the American taxpayer, by keeping borrowers
in their homes and reducing risk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan.

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint
Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still
meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that
will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to
meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.

Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow - $70B
Cut employer payroll taxes in half & bonus payroll cut for new jobs/wages - $65B
Extend 100% expensing in 2012 - $5B
Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America - $140B
Teacher rehiring and first responders - $35B
Modernizing schools - $30B
Immediate surface transportation - $50B
Infrastructure bank - $10B
Rehabilitation/repurposing of vacant property (neighborhood stabilization) - $15B
National wireless initiative - proposed at $10B but not in total below
Veterans hiring initiative - proposed at $2B but not in total below
Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs - $62B
Unemployment Insurance Reform and Extension - $49B
Jobs tax credit for long term unemployed - $8B
Pathways back to work fund - $5B
More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family - $175B
Cutting employee payroll taxes in half in 2012 - $175B

TOTAL - $447B

Feel free to comment. The final total looks to be ~$460 billion.

Macroeconomic Advisors, a top consulting firm, projects a 2% increase to economic growth and 1% reduction to unemployment. Other analysts put the employment performance somewhat stronger. This 2011 job stimulation package is said to be targeted more effectively than the 2009 version.

[elleng]

1. Thanks for FACTS, vets!

[vets74]

3. You are welcome.

[Schema Thing]

2. marking n/t

[Angry Dragon]

4. He also wanted 3 free trade agreements passed

how much will this cost the American people in wages and jobs lost??

[vets74]

5. Getting anything passed is the question. GOPers and Democrats are MIA.

“I think the American people are very skeptical of big pieces of legislation,” Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

The White House wants an omnibus bill -- so here's that Casey the Democrat: “For that reason alone I think we should break it up.”

They all work for the Pharoah, who's name is not Obama.

[evilDonkey]

6. Fail

The last jobs bill failed and this one will too.

Obama, Boehner and Reid need to balance the budget, but their Wall Street paymasters won't allow them too because they want inflation. It won't work. The debt saturated bubble economies of the 1st world are dead and they aren't coming back.

Sooner or later America has to learn to live within it's means.

[AnneD]

7. At 22 posts...

you are considered a sock puppet. EOM

[evilDonkey]

8. you're a party shill

You're the sock puppet if you support a Wall Street bailout disguised as a jobs bill.

The only purpose for this POS is to elevate the stock market for a few extra months before the next inevitable downturn.

Our bubble economy is unsustainable. This "jobs" bill is just wallpaper on a rotted out home.

We need to focus on manufacturing, not handing out candy to the masses to get them spending again.

[AnneD]

9. Little touchy....

could we have hit a nerve or more aptly hit upon the truth. Ah the beauty of the ignore mode......

[evilDonkey]

10. Ewe ==>

[vets74]

11. UPDATE ::: 19-SEPT-2011 White House press release -- more detail

Fact Sheet: Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future - The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction

Overview

The health of our economy depends on what we do right now to create the conditions where businesses can hire and middle-class families can feel a basic measure of economic security. In the long run, our prosperity also depends on our ability to pay down the massive debt the federal government has accumulated over the past decade. Today, the President sent to the Joint Committee his plan to jumpstart economic growth and job creation now – and to lay the foundation for it continue for years to come.

The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means while still making the investments we need to prosper – from a jobs bill that is needed right now to long-term investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure. It follows a balanced approach: asking everyone to do their part, so no one has to bear all the burden. And it says that everyone – including millionaires and billionaires – has to pay their fair share. Overall, it pays for the President’s jobs bill and produces net savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, on top of the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts that the President already signed into law in the Budget Control Act – for a total savings of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. This would bring the country to a place, by 2017, where current spending is no longer adding to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are at a sustainable level.

The American Jobs Act

Tax cuts to help businesses hire and grow
Cutting the payroll tax in half on the first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms with payroll below this threshold.
A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages up to $50 million
Extending 100 percent expensing into 2012
Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital
Putting workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing America
A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans
Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and firefighters on the job
Immediate investments in infrastructure, school buildings, and neighborhoods as well as a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank
Pathways back to work for Americans looking for jobs
The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years and extension of emergency unemployment insurance preventing 6 million Americans looking for work from losing benefits
A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring the long-term unemployed
Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring
Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults
Tax relief for every American worker and family
Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year
Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages

Fully paid for as part of the President’s long-term deficit reduction plan

Paying for Our Investments and Reducing the Deficit

The plan produces approximately $4.4 trillion in deficit reduction net the cost of the American Jobs Act.
$1.2 trillion from the discretionary cuts enacted in the Budget Control Act.
$580 billion in cuts and reforms to a wide range of mandatory programs;
$1.1 trillion from the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and transition from a military to a civilian-led mission in Iraq
$1.5 trillion from tax reform
$430 billion in additional interest savings

To spur economic growth and job creation, the plan includes one-time investment and relief in the American Jobs Act. That adds to the deficit in 2012 but is fully paid for over 10 years, and deficit reduction phases in starting in 2013, as the economy grows stronger.

Deficit reduction is achieved in a balanced approach, with a spending cut to revenue ratio for the entire plan (including discretionary cuts) of 2 to 1.

Deficits and Debt

The Joint Committee plan significantly reduces deficits and puts the country on a fiscally sustainable path by 2017.

The deficit is projected to fall to 2.3 percent of GDP in 2021. By comparison, if we did nothing, the deficit would be 5.5 percent of GDP in 2021.

Reaches “primary balance”-- where our current spending is no longer adding to our debt -- in 2017. At that point, current spending is no longer adding to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are at a sustainable level.

The President’s plan would reduce the national debt as a share of economy.

Stable or falling debt as a share of the economy is a key metric of fiscal sustainability.

If we did nothing, the national debt would rise to 90.7 percent of GDP in 2021. By contrast, under the President’s plan, the national debt would fall to 73.0 percent of GDP in 2021 -- or an improvement of almost 18 percentage points.

Health Savings

The plan includes $320 billion in health savings that build on the Affordable Care Act to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid by reducing wasteful spending and erroneous payments, and supporting reforms that boost the quality of care. It accomplishes this in a way that does not shift significant risks onto the individuals they serve; slash benefits; or undermine the fundamental compact they represent to our Nation’s seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families.

-- The plan includes $248 billion in savings from Medicare.

Within this total, 90 percent of the savings, or $224 billion, comes from reducing overpayments in Medicare.
-- Any savings that affect beneficiaries do not begin until 2017.
-- The plan does not propose to change the eligibility age for Medicare benefits.
-- Other health and Medicaid savings amount to $72 billion.
-- Because of the structural nature of these reforms, health savings grow to over $1 trillion in the second decade.
-- The President will veto any bill that takes one dime from the Medicare benefits seniors rely on without asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.

Other Mandatory

The plan includes $250 billion in savings from other mandatory programs.
Included within these savings are:
-- $33 billion in savings from agriculture subsidies, payments, and programs
-- $42.5 billion in reforms to Federal employee benefit programs, including programs for civilian employees and military personnel.
-- $4.1 billion from the disposal of unused government assets.
-- $92.2 billion from restructuring government operations and reducing government liabilities.
-- $77.6 billion from improving Federal program management and reducing waste and abuse.

Revenues

The President calls on the Committee to undertake comprehensive tax reform, and lays out five principles for it to follow: 1) lower tax rates; 2) cut wasteful loopholes and tax breaks; 3) reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion; 4) boost job creation and growth; and 5) comport with the “Buffett Rule” that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.

Tax reform should draw on the specific proposals the President has put forward, together with elimination of additional inefficient tax breaks. If the Joint Committee is unable to undertake comprehensive tax reform, the President believes the discrete measures he has proposed should be enacted on a standalone basis. Their enactment as a standalone package still would significantly improve the country’s fiscal standing, represent an important step toward more fundamentally transforming our tax code, and serve as a strong foundation for economic growth and job creation.

To advance this debate, the President is offering a detailed set of specific tax loophole closers and measures to broaden the tax base that, together with the expiration of the high-income tax cuts, would be more than sufficient to hit the $1.5 trillion target. These include:
-- Allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for upper income earners to expire ($866 billion)
-- Limiting deductions and exclusions for those making more than $250,000 a year ($410 billion)
-- Closing loopholes and eliminating special interest tax breaks (approximately $300 billion)

[evilDonkey]

12. More Fail

More Fail from the Obama administration and it's easy to understand why.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133211508/the-weekly-standard-obama-vs-bush-on-debt">NPR: Debt surges under Bush

To put that into perspective, when President George W. Bush took office, our national debt was $5.768 trillion. By the time Bush left office, it had nearly doubled, to $10.626 trillion. So Bush's record on deficit spending was not good at all: During his presidency, the national debt rose by an average of $607 billion a year.

The US economy has been operating under massive "stimulus" spending since Bush took office. What did it get us? A galactic housing bubble followed by the largest recession since the Great Depression. The USA can print all the money it wants but stimulus won't work. What good does it do us if the stimulus is spent on Oil from Canada and a TV made in China?

Until we start protecting our manufacturing and engineering jobs nothing is going to turn our economy around. Nothing. It's that simple. Money printing is just more debt, more inflation and guaranteed fail.

According to MIT's Billion Prices Project US inflation is at 4% and accelerating. That's what money printing does.

http://bpp.mit.edu/usa/">The Billion Prices Project @ MIT

This phony "jobs" bill is nothing but a gigantic love letter to Wall Street. As prices rise nominally the inflation hides all of their bad investments. As always the workers pay the bill.